December 11, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, as part of his ongoing series on the origins of everyday expressions, Andrew Thompson—author of Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red—shares the fascinating backstory behind the phrase “apple of your eye” and several others we still use without thinking. These familiar sayings carry histories shaped by religion, literature, and everyday life in earlier centuries. Thompson traces how these expressions traveled through time, how their meanings shifted, and why they continue to resonate in modern speech.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
The English language is filled with curious, intriguing, and bizarre phrases.
Here with the recurring series is Hair of the Dog
author Andrew Thompson as he shares another slaves from his
Ultimate Guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the
(00:30):
English language.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Apple of your eye is an expression referring to someone
who you cherish above all else, like a grandmother might
say that my grandson is the apple of my eye.
It's an expression that dates back centuries and as from
in Old English, the pupil of the eye was known
as the apple because of its round shape, and sight
was regarded as the most essential sense, so when damaged
(00:53):
it was a terrible incident. It was used figuratively by
King Alfred in eight eighty five and by Shakespeare in
A Midsummer Night's Dream in sixteen oh five, but the
reference is actually from the Bible, a segment of which reads,
he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him
as the apple of his eye. As bald as a
(01:14):
badger is an expression to mean that someone's bald has
no hair on the head. And it's one that I've
always found their origins of this one interesting because a
lot of people think that a badger's head being white,
giving it the impression of baldness, is where the expression
comes from. But it actually is a contraction of the
expression as bald as a badger's bum because at the time,
(01:35):
male shaving brushes were made with badger's hair plucked from
the rear of the badger. Badgers were trapped for this purpose,
plucked and then set free. The hair would grow back eventually,
but before it did it was common to see badgers
running about the countryside of England that looked bald in
the rear. As sure as eggs is an expression that
(01:58):
means to describe an absolute sort of as sure as eggs,
he'll be back asking for more money tomorrow. It's got
a really strange origin this expression. It's actually a corruption
of the logical mathematical formula X equals x, and there's
a contraction of the longer expression as sure as eggs
is eggs, so X being x. But it's not known
(02:20):
how X equals x became eggs's eggs. But Charles Dickens,
who seems to be involved in a lot of expressions
that we use, used the phrase in his book The
Pickwick Papers in the early to eighteen hundreds, and the
expression became popular from then as the crow flies means
in a straight line or the shortest distance between two points,
(02:40):
and it's one of many many phrases that has nautical origins.
In fact, you could write a whole book about nautical expressions,
but it derives from the early English explorers who'd go
by boat looking for foreign lands. There were very few
navigational aids and no maps, so it was important to
find land while let's sea, and the crow was renounced
(03:02):
an intelligent bird that would fly straight to land to
try to find food. So ships would always have a
cage full of crows before they went on a journey,
and the crow would be released from the crow's nest,
which was another expression from this, which was at the
top of the mast, and the captain would follow its path,
which was usually the fastest way to land. At a
(03:24):
loose end is another nautical expression, which means your idle
or have no plans and nothing to do, and it's
from tall sailing ships which had hundreds of ropes and sails,
and the ropes were essential to ensure the sales were
firmly in place, but they often became loose and unraveled,
and it was a full time job checking the ship's
rigging from untied ropes or loose ends. And if ever
(03:47):
the ship's captain found men sitting around doing nothing, who'd
make them check the ropes, so they would find themselves
for hours then working at a loose end, which is
where the expression comes from. To keep something at bay
is to fend it off or keep it at a distance,
and it's an expression with pretty interesting origins. A lot
of people think it comes from holding off baying hounds
(04:08):
from a fox in fox hunting in England years ago,
but that origin about the fox's only dates from thirteen hundreds,
while the phrase actually began with the ancient Romans and Greeks.
They believed that the bay tree had protective powers and
because it never seemed to be struck by lightning, and
because of this, people would take shelter under the trees
during storms. It became such a powerful sort of image
(04:31):
that soldiers started wearing bay leaves on their heads as
protection during thunderstorms. They believed that they would keep the
lightning at bay and would shield them from the enemy. Also,
and the supposed power of the bay leaf then spread
to London during the Great Plague in sixteen sixty five,
where many people wore bay leaves in an attempt to
keep the disease at bay. At full blast, which means
(04:54):
as loudly as possible, or using full power is strangely
a rare expression. It has pretty obvious origins most expressions don't.
It's from the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, where
iron and other metals were essential commodities and factories used
huge blast furnaces to smelt the metals. Fuel was continuously
(05:16):
supplied into the furnace while a hot blast of air
was blown into the lower section, causing the chemical reactions
to produce the molten metal. When the furnace was operating
a full capacity and producing as much iron as possible,
it was considered to be at full blast at sixes
and sevens. As an expression, you're often here, which means
a state of confusion, and it comes from London. In
(05:39):
the thirteen hundreds, there were two livery companies there and
they each received their charter within a few days of
each other, so they were the sixth and seventh companies listed.
But a dispute arose between them as to which would
be placed sixth in the processions around the city. So
to resolve this, the two companies would swap between sixth
and seven place each year, but that resulted in confusion
(06:03):
for a lot of people watching. At the drop of
a hat is a sporting expression which means something happened
suddenly or with little warning. It came from the nineteenth
century from a couple of sporting contests. Sporting referees at
the time usually wore hats and they would raise it
in the air as a signal that an event was
about to begin. Then as soon as the hat was dropped,
(06:24):
the contest would start. This was most commonly used in
horse racing and boxing, where an event would start at
the drop of a hat. Was actually also used in
the American West, where a man would sometimes drop his
hat as a challenge to fight another, so as soon
as the hat hit the ground, it was morally right
that the fight should start. An axe to grind is
(06:45):
an expression that means a selfish or ulterior aim or motive,
and it's credited to one of the founding fathers of America,
Benjamin Franklin. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote an anecdote about
a man who wanted his axe ground, and a blacksmith
agreed to do it, but only if the man turned
the grindstone himself. The man did this, but soon feigned
(07:06):
fatigue and gave up, making the blacksmith finish the job
for him. And that the expression that we know today
came from that story.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And you're listening to Andrew Thompson. The book is Hair
offth Dog. Go to Amazon dot com and buy it.
The Story of Curious Phrases in the English Language. Here
on our American Stories, Lee hbib here, and I'm inviting
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
(07:36):
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories.
Any amount helps. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and
give
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
The English language is filled with curious, intriguing, and bizarre phrases.
Here with the recurring series is Hair of the Dog
author Andrew Thompson as he shares another slaves from his
Ultimate Guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the
(00:30):
English language.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Apple of your eye is an expression referring to someone
who you cherish above all else, like a grandmother might
say that my grandson is the apple of my eye.
It's an expression that dates back centuries and as from
in Old English, the pupil of the eye was known
as the apple because of its round shape, and sight
was regarded as the most essential sense, so when damaged
(00:53):
it was a terrible incident. It was used figuratively by
King Alfred in eight eighty five and by Shakespeare in
A Midsummer Night's Dream in sixteen oh five, but the
reference is actually from the Bible, a segment of which reads,
he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him
as the apple of his eye. As bald as a
(01:14):
badger is an expression to mean that someone's bald has
no hair on the head. And it's one that I've
always found their origins of this one interesting because a
lot of people think that a badger's head being white,
giving it the impression of baldness, is where the expression
comes from. But it actually is a contraction of the
expression as bald as a badger's bum because at the time,
(01:35):
male shaving brushes were made with badger's hair plucked from
the rear of the badger. Badgers were trapped for this purpose,
plucked and then set free. The hair would grow back eventually,
but before it did it was common to see badgers
running about the countryside of England that looked bald in
the rear. As sure as eggs is an expression that
(01:58):
means to describe an absolute sort of as sure as eggs,
he'll be back asking for more money tomorrow. It's got
a really strange origin this expression. It's actually a corruption
of the logical mathematical formula X equals x, and there's
a contraction of the longer expression as sure as eggs
is eggs, so X being x. But it's not known
(02:20):
how X equals x became eggs's eggs. But Charles Dickens,
who seems to be involved in a lot of expressions
that we use, used the phrase in his book The
Pickwick Papers in the early to eighteen hundreds, and the
expression became popular from then as the crow flies means
in a straight line or the shortest distance between two points,
(02:40):
and it's one of many many phrases that has nautical origins.
In fact, you could write a whole book about nautical expressions,
but it derives from the early English explorers who'd go
by boat looking for foreign lands. There were very few
navigational aids and no maps, so it was important to
find land while let's sea, and the crow was renounced
(03:02):
an intelligent bird that would fly straight to land to
try to find food. So ships would always have a
cage full of crows before they went on a journey,
and the crow would be released from the crow's nest,
which was another expression from this, which was at the
top of the mast, and the captain would follow its path,
which was usually the fastest way to land. At a
(03:24):
loose end is another nautical expression, which means your idle
or have no plans and nothing to do, and it's
from tall sailing ships which had hundreds of ropes and sails,
and the ropes were essential to ensure the sales were
firmly in place, but they often became loose and unraveled,
and it was a full time job checking the ship's
rigging from untied ropes or loose ends. And if ever
(03:47):
the ship's captain found men sitting around doing nothing, who'd
make them check the ropes, so they would find themselves
for hours then working at a loose end, which is
where the expression comes from. To keep something at bay
is to fend it off or keep it at a distance,
and it's an expression with pretty interesting origins. A lot
of people think it comes from holding off baying hounds
(04:08):
from a fox in fox hunting in England years ago,
but that origin about the fox's only dates from thirteen hundreds,
while the phrase actually began with the ancient Romans and Greeks.
They believed that the bay tree had protective powers and
because it never seemed to be struck by lightning, and
because of this, people would take shelter under the trees
during storms. It became such a powerful sort of image
(04:31):
that soldiers started wearing bay leaves on their heads as
protection during thunderstorms. They believed that they would keep the
lightning at bay and would shield them from the enemy. Also,
and the supposed power of the bay leaf then spread
to London during the Great Plague in sixteen sixty five,
where many people wore bay leaves in an attempt to
keep the disease at bay. At full blast, which means
(04:54):
as loudly as possible, or using full power is strangely
a rare expression. It has pretty obvious origins most expressions don't.
It's from the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, where
iron and other metals were essential commodities and factories used
huge blast furnaces to smelt the metals. Fuel was continuously
(05:16):
supplied into the furnace while a hot blast of air
was blown into the lower section, causing the chemical reactions
to produce the molten metal. When the furnace was operating
a full capacity and producing as much iron as possible,
it was considered to be at full blast at sixes
and sevens. As an expression, you're often here, which means
a state of confusion, and it comes from London. In
(05:39):
the thirteen hundreds, there were two livery companies there and
they each received their charter within a few days of
each other, so they were the sixth and seventh companies listed.
But a dispute arose between them as to which would
be placed sixth in the processions around the city. So
to resolve this, the two companies would swap between sixth
and seven place each year, but that resulted in confusion
(06:03):
for a lot of people watching. At the drop of
a hat is a sporting expression which means something happened
suddenly or with little warning. It came from the nineteenth
century from a couple of sporting contests. Sporting referees at
the time usually wore hats and they would raise it
in the air as a signal that an event was
about to begin. Then as soon as the hat was dropped,
(06:24):
the contest would start. This was most commonly used in
horse racing and boxing, where an event would start at
the drop of a hat. Was actually also used in
the American West, where a man would sometimes drop his
hat as a challenge to fight another, so as soon
as the hat hit the ground, it was morally right
that the fight should start. An axe to grind is
(06:45):
an expression that means a selfish or ulterior aim or motive,
and it's credited to one of the founding fathers of America,
Benjamin Franklin. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote an anecdote about
a man who wanted his axe ground, and a blacksmith
agreed to do it, but only if the man turned
the grindstone himself. The man did this, but soon feigned
(07:06):
fatigue and gave up, making the blacksmith finish the job
for him. And that the expression that we know today
came from that story.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And you're listening to Andrew Thompson. The book is Hair
offth Dog. Go to Amazon dot com and buy it.
The Story of Curious Phrases in the English Language. Here
on our American Stories, Lee hbib here, and I'm inviting
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
(07:36):
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories.
Any amount helps. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and
give
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.